ABVP member Shyam Prasad killed: As BJP observes hartal in Kannur, police says situation under control

Kannur: The situation in Kannur district, where a BJP-sponsored hartal was being observed on Saturday to protest the killing of an ABVP member, was under control and no untoward incident has been reported so far, police said.

A member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Shyam Prasad, was on Friday allegedly hacked to death by a three-member gang in the district when he was going to his house at Koothuparamba on his motorcycle.

File image of ABVP member Shyam Prasad. Twitter@Kummanam

Tight security arrangements were made, with police personnel from other districts being deployed in strength in vulnerable pockets.

"No untoward incident was reported so far," Peravoor Circle inspector Kuttikrishnan said. Four persons, belonging to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), were taken into custody in connection with the killing and further investigations were underway, he said.

The police suspected that the killing could be a sequel to a clash between workers of the SDPI and BJP-RSS combine last week in the area.

Vehicles and essential services were exempted from the dawn-to-dusk hartal.

Sources in the BJP's Kannur unit said postmortem of Prasad's body was on at the Pariyaram Medical College in Kannur and the funeral will be held later in the evening at his native place.